AT THE weekly sheep sale in Ulster Farmers Mart on Wednesday, August 18, another large entry of 1,300 sheep met a strong trade, with quality in abundance.

Fat lambs sold up to 535 pence per kg with 21.5 kgs fetching £115.

Good crossbred lambs sold mainly from £100 to £108 per head.

Store lambs met a flying trade with quality lots reaching £80 for a pen of 15kg ewe lambs, with the majority selling in the £60 to £80 bracket.

Breeding ewe lambs sold up to a top price of £120, with quality hoggets reaching £205 per head.

Fat ewes remained in strong demand, reaching £130 per head.

A spokesperson from Ulster Farmers Mart said that they have been getting a large turnout of quality sheep over the past few weeks, with the previous week seeing 1,500 go through the sale ring.

With the autumn sales buzzing, the mart is looking forward to having 1,500 to 2,000 ewes, ewe lambs and hoggets forward at their annual breeding sale on Bank Holiday Monday, August 30.

This event always provides local farmers with top-notch replacement breeding stock to enhance their flocks which, in turn, provides quality lambs for the market next year.

Breeding rams at the event will be sold separately on the day.

The upcoming sale is a date in the diary not to be missed for local sheep farmers.